Obama Now Says Drill Baby Drill

After running against the idea of drilling off the coasts, President Obama is now reversing a ban that would allow drilling along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska.

…Obama said, “This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly.” He addressed the expected outcry from disappointed environmentalists by saying he had studied the issue for more than a year and concluded it was the right call given the nation’s voracious thirst for energy and the need to produce jobs and keep American businesses competitive.

“We’re announcing the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration but in ways that balance the need to harness domestic energy resources and the need to protect America’s natural resources,” Obama said, according to his prepared remarks released in advance by the White House.

This is an effort to get support for a climate change bill, but is this too much of a compromise? Contrary to those who claim this is a brand new position, Obama offered the possibility of favoring offshore oil drilling during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“What I will not do, and this has always been my position, is to support a plan that suggests this drilling is the answer to our energy problems,” Obama added.

“If we’ve got a plan on the table that I think meets the goals that America has to set and there are some things in there that I don’t like, then obviously that’s something that I would consider because that’s the nature of how we govern in a democracy.

However, while Obama took this position later – in August, 2008 – his earlier position was not to drill on the coasts.

“When I’m president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country that prevents oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts,” Obama told reporters in Jacksonville in late June. “That’s how we can protect our coastline and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good.”

So, yes, he did reverse his position, but before he was elected president.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.